Sorry Tamagotchi Fans, It’s AI Time

When he said, “Nothing is sacred in this world,” he also meant Tamagotchi, or at least the Tamagotchi scam. Although you may remember your old virtual pets with all the analog goodies that were introduced in the ’90s, this is the year of our Lord 2026, and there has to be AI in everything. Yes, Everything.

While Swecker, which I saw at CES 2026, isn’t actually a Tamagotchi, it is in everything but name, and, as you may have already guessed from the words above, it focuses on AI.

What is that AI actually doing? Ya know, just the usual things that allow it to “feel your touch” and remember “your voice, your stories, and your quirks.” It’s time to connect deeply with your virtual pets, people. It’s not enough to click a few buttons until they inevitably die from neglect. At the hardware level, there are some cool things happening. The egg sort of vibrates, moves and moves, which is a fun tactile experience.

As far as abilities go, Swooker reportedly “needs your love like a real pet,” which also means its moods can be happy, angry, sleepy, and something that Takeaway.AI, which makes this little toy, is calling a “sneaky smile,” which is basically just mischievous? I think? I shudder to think what else it could mean.

Like Tamagotchi, Swecker has developmental cycles that include an “egg stage,” an “infant stage,” an “adolescent stage,” and an “adult stage.” At each stage, the pet acquires certain abilities and continues to grow and understand more about you and your personality.

However, more than anything, Swecker focuses on using AI for memory, so it can remember your name and your favorite color and that time you forgot its birthday. This Tamagotchi’s therapy bill is going to be huge. The folks at Takway.AI told me it’s using a combination of Google’s Gemini and ChatGPT to do this, and that anything you tell Swecker is private, though I obviously can’t verify the data practices of the company selling AI Tamagotchi at CES.

The whole point is also that AI toys have a mind of their own, which means you might want to think twice before giving this little one to a kid.

If the AI ​​Tamagotchi is really at the top of your list of things you must have then you can finally put money on Sweekar’s Kickstarter in March. Although there’s no official price yet, the makers of this little virtual pet say it’ll likely start between $150 and $200.

Gizmodo will be in Las Vegas all week long bringing you everything you need to know about the technology being unveiled at CES 2026. You can follow our CES live blog here and find all of our coverage here.